Email is stuck in queue 1

[Trekkie]

Hi,

I got qmail with vpopmail & sqwebmail on RH 7.3 server. I'm using Outlook client to send an email with attachment. The email with attachment is not getting thru, but without the attachement is OK.

My first problem is that I'm getting this error in my log /var/log/qmail/current file.

Connected_to_24.323.22.1_but_connection_died._(#4.4.2)

My second problem is that this email is stuck in the queue. Initially, queuelifetime was set as default which is ~604800 then I changed it to 36000 (10 min)...I did qmailctl restart.

Why is the email is stuck in the queue still?

Thank you for any advice.

T.K.

 

[sleipnir214]

If qmail can resolve the MX record of a domain and contact it on port 25, but that connection on port 25 fails in mid-message, qmail can get pretty stubborn about trying to get the message delivered.

It sounds to me like the foreign server is doing at least one of:
not allowing attachments,
not allowing attachments over a certain size,
not allowing messages over a certain size,
detecting a virus or something else it doesn't like in the attachment

When that foreign server hits one of the problems above, it barfs mid-stream. qmail then realizes the server is available but is having problems. qmail is now in stubborn mode, as it has not received some kind of "not-deliverable" message from the foreign server.

There is a perl script available which allows you to manipulate the qmail queue, called qmHandle. It's available here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qmhandle

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[Trekkie]

Thanks sleipnir214,

I downloaded the qmHandle and I can see the message in the queue. In the header, "From: MAILER-DAEMON@mydomain.com...Subject: failure notice" Since this email was not deliverable, why does it not return to the sender (Message in remote queue: 3)? From the README, I can delete the email from the queue, but...I want to know why its not returning the sender??? I tried restarting the qmailctl...I did "qmHandle -a" command.

I appreciate any help.

T.K.

 

[sleipnir214]

qmail seems to recognize several classes of undeliverability.

If a message is addressed to foo@bar.com, and qmail cannot find a mail server for bar.com, it will quit immediately and return the message. Likewise if it can find a mail server for bar.com but that mail server says there is no user foo on that server.

But if qmail can contact the server at bar.com but something happens during the message transfer, qmail assumes that it was a transitory problem and requeues the message to try again later. This can also happen if qmail can resolve a mail server for bar.com, but that mail server is not responding.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!

 

[Trekkie]

Thanks again sleipnir214,

I appreciate your information

T.K.